‘A wake-up call for the Church’

MaltaToday’s survey on the state of the church published last week “is a wake-up call for the church to learn to give more heed to people’s feelings and way of thinking”, leading theologian Fr Rene Camilleri told this newspaper.

The survey showed a majority of Maltese people agreeing with euthanasia for patients suffering from terminal illness and disagreeing with the church’s teachings on contraception, but overwhelmingly disagreeing with the depiction of religious figures like Mohammed and Jesus Christ in satirical newspaper cartoons. 

The survey also showed that the Maltese overwhelmingly (89%) define themselves as Catholics but only just over half go to Sunday mass.

READ The MaltaToday survey on religion

Surprisingly, the survey indicated little change in attendance at mass when compared to the last church census carried out in 2006, which showed 53% attending mass. 

The MaltaToday survey has 51% saying that they had attended mass the previous Sunday, suggesting that church attendance has remained stable over the past decade even if the same survey indicates that 65% of under-35-year olds do not attend Sunday mass.

But informed sources within the church contend that actual church attendance could be possibly lower than 45%. 

This is because while in a survey like that conducted by MaltaToday some people reply according to what they think they are supposed to do (attending mass every Sunday), the actual church census consists of a head count.

‘A wake up call’

Fr Rene Camilleri

This survey is being labelled as the MaltaToday Easter survey. In the wake of the Easter celebrations, what worries me mostly is that it confirms how misleading is the Holy Week facade of religiosity we build up every year. We have been failing miserably, as church and as a people, to translate culturally and relevantly the faith we’ve received from the past.

This survey confirms for the umpteenth time that the Maltese have changed, it underlines how our institutions, church included, remain stuck somewhere in the past. Hence the problem for me is that in this scenario and as a people, we seem to lack points of reference that can really provide a vision for the ethos of this country.

Where beliefs and values are concerned, we have always banked on the landscape of the times – securing an amount of social protectionism on the people and on its religion. This survey shows how what actually matters is the landscape of the heart – how people change on the inside, becoming more autonomous, reasonable, perhaps even more intelligent.

What should be mostly worrying for the church in this scenario is not the decline in Sunday mass attendance or that the individual’s autonomy features stronger in the face of dogma or church teachings. What is really worrying is the increase in pseudo-religiosity, the type we’ve seen on our streets this past week and on almost every corner of our villages.

In the past, disagreement with church teachings was simply seen as disobedience or dissent. This is no longer the case. We are past the times when faith was identified with doctrine and allowed no space for free thinking. People today intelligently and in matters of belief focus more on their own personal journey, on their well-being and happiness. I prefer someone who struggles to believe to someone who is simply gullible or passive.

What worries me mostly in this survey is where is the church located in this scenario. Surely, from many people’s landscape of the heart the church is left out. When we consider how the mainstream church is responding to this changed scenario, the conclusion is that the church is disconnected from many people’s lives, that the language, tools and methods it uses are simply inadequate. What makes things worse is the conservative tendency in certain sections of the mainstream church and of the clergy, particularly the younger generations. Budget-wise, there is still a serious disproportion between how much we spend on our village festa or the embellishment of our churches and how much we invest in the people’s education in the faith.

Unfortunately we are still preachy with the people about what is right or wrong, little noticing that people at the end of the day, and particularly those who still come, are more concerned with what makes life sensible and reasonable.

One other conclusion from this survey is that religion does not always and automatically lead to faith. Faith has its intimate aspect and personal touch. But unfortunately we are still investing more in religion and less in true faith which enhances the life of each and every individual, be it a Christian or Muslim or whatever.

‘Pick and Choose’ Catholics?

Ramon Casha (Malta Humanist Society)

The survey conducted by MaltaToday over Easter offers a number of interesting insights into the evolving social landscape in Malta.

While a large (but shrinking) percentage of Maltese people still identify as Catholics, fewer than half believe in Hell, and over three quarters disagree with the church’s teachings on contraceptives, while a majority agree with assisted dying in cases of painful, terminal illness.

The difference between those who call themselves Catholics while rejecting some or most of the core teachings of Catholicism is fascinating. At which point is one no longer a Catholic, or Christian?

Clearly, blind obedience to the church is over, and people are reaching their own conclusions on matters of morality and how to live their lives. This shift from obedience and allegiance to more ideological stances is reflected in other areas, such as politics, where the block of dyed-in-the-wool voters is slowly giving way to floating voters who will vote on issues more than party. Throughout the survey, the younger generation and the more educated respondents tend to be more ready to go against church authority.

I wonder how many of the respondents realise that, as they move away from the old, authoritarian model, to a more human-centric model, many of them are actually adopting a humanism as a natural life stance.